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The section titled “Access” in lesson 1-7 (Lordship and Surrender) is intended to draw the contrast between the believer who gives God access to their entire life versus a believer who allows God access only to parts of their life.

You can see the lesson comparing the normal versus the abnormal Christian life by clicking here.

One believer allows God control over only a limited part of their life, represented by the progressive surrender diagram. Why would a Christian limit God’s access?

If you say, “God, I want you to manage my life,” this includes giving Him access to all areas. If you aren’t allowing Him access to all the nooks and crannies of your life, both large and small, then, you really DON’T want Him to manage your life.

For instance, what if you said to a money manager, “I want you to manage all my money,” but then you give that person a five dollar bill and you keep the rest of the money under your own control. They would ask, “I thought you wanted me to manage all your money?” And you respond, “Yes, I intend that someday you will manage all of it, but we will go at it by degrees, progressively for now.”

It's a contradiction, because God wants to manage our entire life. What this believer should say is, “God, I want to give you freedom to make changes in any area of my life because I know you love me.”

The point is, we’re to give God control and access to every area of our lives. The only reason that someone would deny God complete access is fear, fear of the unknown. It also demonstrates a distorted view of God's character, a lack of real understanding of who God is.

How do we communicate this message in the spiritual mentoring process? We use an analogy of visualizing our life as a house, with different rooms. Here is the list of rooms that one mentee used.

• Other people (my spouse, children, grandchildren• My social media• Exercising and eating / drinking habits• My vocation or other work life• Entertainment• My devotion and prayer life• Church attendance• Mission work

(There are other examples listed in the lesson)

Now many Christians look at their life and say “God is in my life and He can be in charge of my “spiritual room” where I read my Bible, pray, and go to church. The prevalent view is that God is obviously in charge of those spiritual areas, but when it comes to the other areas, God leaves it up to me to do the best I can. (The house on the left)

While God doesn't want us to be robots, He doesn't want us to have areas of independence from Him. He wants us to learn how to cooperate with Him and be like the other believer in the lesson who has given God access to all the areas of their life. (The house on the right)

They have an attitude that says “God, I may be comfortable with the way things are arranged in each one of these rooms, but I want to be willing to let you go into each room and make the changes that you want to make. Whatever you want to do, God, you know best.” Maybe He wants to just rearrange things or He may want to have a garage sale or maybe He wants to replace some items, or clean out a locked closet. You have to believe that God will only do what is in your best interest, because He loves you. Love can be defined as only doing for someone what is in their best interest. And that is what God does for us if we let Him.

When God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, He didn’t just say to Moses (at the burning bush encounter in Exodus Chapter 3) “I will take my people out of Egypt.” No, He said, “I will take them out and PUT THEM IN” their promised land. He wants to deliver all Christians from our bondage and put ALL Christians into the “Spiritual Promised Land” and not wander in a “spiritual desert”. However, for that to happen, He has to be the one who manages our lives.

The final piece of the lesson is a “house” with blank “rooms” to be completed by you (honestly). Name the rooms using the examples listed above and other labels that God reveals to you. Then prayerfully consider whether you have given God complete access and control to each of these areas of your life. If yes, great! That’s what He wants. If the answer is no, then prayerfully consider why not?

Here are several questions to ask yourself if you are struggling with giving Him total control. Pray about these honestly.

• “What will He ask me to do that I can’t do, or don’t want to do?• “What will He keep me from doing that I want to do?”• “What will He take away that I hold dear?• “Will God fail me if I entrust “this” to Him?”

When all is said and done, we can be sure that we will approve of the changes He has made. And, there is no logical reason for not embracing Him as Manager and Master of my life.